R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 33

The Great Commission

While the women were on their way, some soldiers who had been guarding the tomb went into the city. They told the chief priests everything that had happened. So the chief priests met with the leaders and decided to bribe the soldiers with a lot of money. They said to the soldiers, “Tell everyone that Jesus’ disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. If the governor hears about this, we will talk to him. You won’t have anything to worry about.” The soldiers took the money and did what they were told. The people of Judea still tell each other this story.

Jesus’ eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus had told them to meet him. They saw him and worshiped him, but some of them doubted.

Jesus came to them and said:

I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. (Matthew 28:11–20)

After his resurrection, but before he ascended to heaven, Jesus met his disciples in Galilee and spent time teaching them. But facing the resurrected man that they had seen die on a Roman cross, some of them still entertained doubts. The Bible contains many stories about those who saw God do amazing things, who then turned around and grumbled and griped. We’d like to think that if we had been there, if we had seen such marvelous miracles, then we would be set for life: we’d never again doubt God, never again disobey, never again complain about any suffering we ever experienced: we’d live our lives on the mountaintop.

But what we see, in fact, is the way things really are, in the real world. As Abraham told the rich man, if people don’t believe the Bible, then they won’t believe just because someone comes back from the grave (Luke 16:31). Doubt is where we live, it is who we are. It is human nature to doubt, rather than to trust. No matter what God does, no matter how marvelously we see him act, we will always be tempted to doubt, especially as time passes and we begin to take whatever God did for granted. The novelty quickly wears off. We must work hard and constantly strive to renew our trust.

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Follow Me

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:20–25)

After Jesus had restored his relationship with Peter, reassuring him that he loved him and getting Peter three times to acknowledge that he loved Jesus, Jesus had told Peter that he would someday die as a martyr on a cross. Peter’s response was to ask Jesus about the apostle John, who was following behind them.

Jesus told Peter that what John’s fate in life would be was not Peter’s concern. God has a purpose for each individual. God’s will for one man can be quite different than his will for another. In the end, according to legend, Peter was crucified upside down in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Nero. But according to tradition, John died of old age, the only one of the twelve apostles who was not martyred. After his exile on Patmos, during which he wrote the book of Revelation, John was set free and continued preaching and teaching until the day he died peacefully, surrounded by other Christians.

God works with each of us in his own separate way. We each of us have a part to play in God’s plan. Some of us may lead lives of great turmoil, pain and suffering. Others of us may live lives of grand excitement. And some of us will lead quiet, ordinary, and happy lives. No matter what sort of life God gives us, it will bring glory to him. And all of us, no matter the cup he gives us, are equally valuable.

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Burial

It was noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.

When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.” And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow. But Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph. He was a member of the Jewish high council, but he had not agreed with the decision and actions of the other religious leaders. He was from the town of Arimathea in Judea, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come. He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a long sheet of linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb that had been carved out of rock. This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation, as the Sabbath was about to begin. (Luke 23:44–54)

Luke, along with Matthew, report that the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle just as Jesus died. That curtain in the sanctuary was what separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, where the High Priest went only once a year to make atonement for the sins of the entire nation of Israel on the most holy day of the year, the Day of Atonement. “Atonement” is a word used to translate the Hebrew word “Kippur” which means to “cover” or to “purify.” By atonement, was meant the reconciliation of human beings with God: the replacement of punishment with forgiveness, the restoration of a relationship that had been broken.With Jesus’ death, the barrier that had stood between God and the human race, symbolized by that curtain, was finally torn down. Thanks to Jesus ultimate sacrifice, humanity and God were reconciled and the power of the Devil was once and for all destroyed.

Jesus passed from life to death and back to life again, showing us that the way past the end of our lives is safe, because the Father stands there waiting to catch us. He will not abandon us to the grave, but will instead bring us to our resurrection.

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For Us

After [seeing to it that his mother would be cared for], when Jesus knew that everything was now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He said, “I’m thirsty!” A jar full of sour wine was sitting there; so they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on hyssop and held it up to His mouth.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” Then bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special day). They requested that Pilate have the men’s legs broken and that their bodies be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other one who had been crucified with Him. When they came to Jesus, they did not break His legs since they saw that He was already dead. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth. For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of His bones will be broken. Also, another Scripture says: They will look at the One they pierced. (John 19:28–37)

As a mode of execution, crucifixion was unknown in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 only describes the practice of exposing the corpse of an executed criminal by hanging it on a tree. The Persians apparently invented crucifixion. The Romans merely borrowed the practice, which they found especially useful as a deterrent against rebellion. A placard proclaiming the crime was commonly hung around the condemned person’s neck. There was a degree of variation in how crucifixions were conducted, depending on the whim and sadism of the executioner.

Death by crucifixion was very slow and very painful. It was not uncommon, in fact, for the condemned to survive for several days. Death ultimately arrived from the combination of thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and exposure. And then the dead body was usually left to decay for awhile.

The fact that Jesus died in a matter of hours was out of the ordinary. But a prolonged death was not necessary for Jesus to fulfill his goal. After everything was in place and ready, Jesus announced, “it is finished. ” Then he died for all our sins, for the sins of every human being who ever lived or ever would live. He died, so that we could live forever.

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Limited Power

When Pilate heard that, he was the more afraid, and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”

Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”

But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!”

Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”

The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away. (John 19:8–16)

Pontius Pilate was the fifth Roman governor of Judea. As the governor, he held absolute power over Jesus as both judge and jury. He could have freed Jesus just as easily as he ultimately had him executed.

But Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Proverbs 21:1 NIV). Pilate could do only as much as God would allow him to do. He was not the one ultimately in charge. In fact, Jesus told him that the one who had delivered him to Pilate—Judas—was far more guilty than Pilate could ever be.

Pilate soon demonstrated his lack of control when he faced the people of Jerusalem. Despite his belief that Jesus was innocent, he felt constrained to follow the whim of the crowd that demanded Jesus’ blood. Because of Pilate’s lack of character, his power was much less than he liked to imagine.

In the end, God’s will was done, though those who performed God’s will were motivated by evil and therefore guilty of a great crime. In the end, we learn that God is always in charge. Nothing that happens to us is a surprise or beyond God’s ability to control.

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Live Forever

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:43–51)

A day or two after feeding the five thousand, the crowds were becoming restless. They wondered if Jesus was the Messiah, and perhaps they wondered if they might get some more free food. So Jesus told them that he was the bread of life that came down from heaven and to stop grumbling.

Human beings become dissatisfied quickly. When the Israelites thought they were going to go hungry, God sent them manna in the wilderness. The Israelites of Jesus’ day thought the Messiah would give them bread just like Moses had. But just as the Israelites became complacent and started grumbling about the manna, so the crowds became dissatisfied with Jesus’ miracle of the loaves and fishes. They took what Jesus had done for them for granted and began wondering what he might do for them next.

As we grow up, we may pray to get into college, then we may pray for a girl friend or boy friend. Soon we pray to be married, have children, and get a house. At each stage along the way, we are in awe of God’s answer to those prayers, but as the years past, what had been awesome becomes ordinary. We are what Madison Avenue knows we are: always looking for the next new thing, always hoping for novelty. We would do well to remember God’s wonderful work in our lives, the marvelous blessings we see each day. God has already done enough for us, after all, and yet he continues on, whether we notice half of it or not.

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51 Eridani b

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.

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A Riddle

Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” (Luke 20:27–38)

The Sadducees believed that only the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy were scripture. Since they seemed silent about an afterlife, the Sadducees rejected the concept.

Why is it that those five books of Moses don’t talk about heaven, hell or the resurrection? The Egyptians were obsessed with the afterlife. They believed that the dead must be protected in order to have a good one. So they built pyramids and mummified their corpses in order to preserve them forever. They wrote a standard guidebook to the afterlife that was buried with every mummy.

The books of the Bible were originally written for particular individuals facing particular situations. Therefore, the books of Moses didn’t talk about the afterlife at all. God made a very clear distinction between himself and the gods of Egypt. God didn’t want his people obsessed with death like the Egyptians.

God knows what we need to know, when we need to know it, and the way we need to learn it. For the Israelites in Moses’ day, it was more important for them to understand how to live for God, than to think about what came next. Even for us, living for God is the emphasis in the Bible: the kingdom of God is not just after we die, or in the distant future. It is something we experience today.

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Fruit of the Kingdom

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet. (Matthew 21:33–46)

Jesus said the cornerstone—which he identified as himself—would break those who came against it, whether they fell on it or it fell on them. The Pharisees would live to see their temple, their nation, and their power destroyed. Rather than destroying Jesus, Jesus would destroy them: he would rise from the dead and the kingdom of God would spread throughout the world. It would consist of the Jewish people together with all humanity. As Nebuchadnezzar saw in his vision of the giant statue, God would bring a rock not cut by human hands that would “crush all the kingdoms and bring them to an end, but…will itself endure forever.” (Daniel 2:44-45 NIV)

We belong to God’s kingdom. It is a kingdom over which Jesus reigns and it is not going to be stopped. That’s why Paul could write that “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

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Staying Alive

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars:

“I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” (Revelation 3:1–6)

Sardis was built on a mountain and its acropolis was considered impregnable. The phrase, “capturing the acropolis of Sardis” was proverbial in Greek for trying to do the impossible. Even so, it was conquered at least five times thanks to a lack of vigilance on the part of its inhabitants. Thus, Jesus’ warning about its church’s failure to recognize its dangerous situation, was striking. Likewise, Jesus uses the imagery of people not walking with “soiled” clothing and being dressed in white may grow from the fact that the city of Sardis was noted as a center for woolen goods.

In Exodus 32:32, When Moses prayed that God would blot him “out of the book you have written” if God did not forgive the Israelites, God’s response was that only those who had sinned against God would be blotted from his book. Then God “struck the people with a plague.” (Exodus 32:31-35). When Jesus warned the church that if they didn’t repent, they might be blotted from the book of life, he simply meant that they might die. The issue for the people of Sardis was not their place in heaven, but rather their continued chance for life. On occasion, God punishes his people, just as a father punishes his children.

The comfort in the letter is that God is selective in his punishment. He only punishes those who deserve it. For the rest, they will receive God’s blessing.

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